Reinsurance Capacity, Consolidation and a Changing MPL Landscape: Key takeaways from the MPLA CEO/COO Conference

Joel Wendland, Managing Director at Howden Re and a specialist in healthcare professional liability, recently attended the MPLA CEO/COO Conference in Scottsdale, where he participated in the Reinsurance Broker Roundtable. 

The roundtable brought together senior voices from across the MPL market to discuss the key drivers reshaping capacity, consolidation, and risk appetite in the sector.

"The MPL reinsurance market has matured considerably over the past decade, but the conditions shaping it today are unlike anything we have seen in recent memory," said Joel. "Carriers, cedants and brokers alike are navigating a confluence of capital dynamics, structural M&A activity and an evolving claims environment that demands a more deliberate strategic response."

Key points of discussion

Participants opened with an assessment of market conditions, noting that global reinsurance capital has reached an all-time high and continues to climb into 2026. Alternative capital now accounts for approximately 25% of the total, with catastrophe bond issuance and collateralised structures both expanding — a dynamic that is driving rate pressure broadly across the market. The group's view was that for MPL cedants, conditions are expected to continue improving through the year, barring a capital-level event, though reinsurers remain focused on maintaining profitability as elevated catastrophe losses and challenging casualty results weigh on underwriting returns.

Discussion turned to the structural evolution of the MPL reinsurance segment over the past decade. Participants noted that while certain carriers have remained consistent and grown their positions materially, others have retrenched or exited entirely. New entrants have added meaningful capacity, and some existing players have grown their footprints substantially. The consensus view was that the current marketplace is more geographically diverse and structurally balanced than at any point in recent history, with a healthier spread of capacity across the top 25 reinsurers.

The group also discussed the wave of M&A activity reshaping the broader (re)insurance sector. From Zurich's $11 billion acquisition of Beazley to AIG and Onex's joint acquisition of Convex, and The Doctors Company's purchase of ProAssurance in the MPL space specifically, participants identified a consistent set of strategic imperatives driving deal activity: scale, access to specialty platforms, and deployment of capital accumulated through several years of hard market conditions. Lloyd's platforms were highlighted as a particular focus for international acquirers. 

"The consolidation we are seeing is not incidental, it reflects the logic of a market where scale increasingly determines competitive positioning," Joel noted. "For MPL writers, the question is how to navigate that environment strategically, whether as a participant in M&A or as an organisation building resilience independently."

The conference underscored that while the MPL reinsurance market enters 2026 in a position of relative stability, the structural forces at work, from capital flows to talent movement to claims complexity, demand a level of strategic clarity that will separate the best-positioned organisations from the rest.